The History of Cubby's Dining Car
Do you remember Cubby's Dining CarâMason County, West Virginia's popular fast food chain? Cubby's Dining Car was established, and opened, by cook Glenn Cubbison Sr. in Broodhollow, West Virginia in 1922 as a single restaurant. Cubby's Dining Car began serving food to customers, who then enjoy eating, and since then, the restaurant went into fame. In 1928, Mabel Cubbison, waitress and daughter of Glenn Sr. (and sister of Glenn Jr.), invented Cub Sauce; the ingredients are molasses, Switchwater, smoked salt, mayonnaise, and cinnamon. Since its creation, fascination in this sauce immediately skyrocketed. In 1931, Cubby's Dining Car created a mascot named Lil' Chowdown; a young boy with a hairstyle similar to Tintin. On January 16, 1934, grill scrapings was added to the "Hot Sandwiches and Otherwise" choice section of the menu for an unknown reason. By May, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ordered Cubby's Dining Car to remove grill scrapings from the menu; therefore, it prevented further human injuries, infections, and deaths.
The first Cubby's Dining Car in Broodhollow, W.Va. (picture taken on March 5, 1934.)
During World War II, Cubby's Dining Car made advertisements with pictures of American soldiers holding food items from the menu while saluting, and also serving food to members of the United States Army, as a way to support them.
In April 1949, Cubby's Dining Car evolved into a fast food chain, spreading all over into every town in Mason County, including Point Pleasant, Lasker City, and Ichor Falls. (During the evacuation from Ichor Fallsâdue to the chemical leakage outbreakâin the 1950s, the Cubby's Dining Car restaurant in it closed down.) On April 28, 1966, seven days after the Elijah Brown Apartments building in Edenvale was completed, a new Cubby's Dining Car restaurant opened in one of the apartments on the second floor. In 1961-1967, members of the company read reports of sightings of "mysterious urban legends" on newspaper articles: the Mothman and the Woman in Profile. So the company introduced new food items on the menu in Point Pleasant: Mothman French Toast and The Fish In Profile. On July 21, 1969, to support NASA during the Apollo 11 mission (and SARO having success on contacting extraterrestrials), Cubby's Dining Car introduced a new food item called the Armstrong Meal Bar [Spaghetti & Meatballs, Bacon & Spinach Omelette, Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich, Caesar Salad, Mega Sushi Platter, or Beef Taco], named after astronaut Neil Armstrong.
A print advertisement for the Armstrong Meal Bar. (c. 1969)
In 1972, Cubby's Dining Car celebrated the 50th anniversary with a special food item introduced on the menu called the Party Jalapeño Popper, loaded with Bac-Os, cheddar cheese, and Cub Sauce, while in that same year, the company began selling food and drink products to grocery stores. Throughout the 1980s to 1990s, Cubby's Dining Car expanded the food services to hospitals, educational institutions, and catering companies. On October 6-31, 1994, Cubby's Dining Car released the first Halloween edition of food items on the menu like the Boo Burger (a burger resembling a jack-o-lantern with radish and ketchup), the Mummified Hollow Dog (an all-American hot dog wrapped in bread dough like bandages), Spider Web Spaghetti (a plate of spaghetti with mozzarella cheese in the form of a spider web), and Hampire Hunter Pizza (a 20" 10-slice pizza with garlic sauce and shredded boursin cheese, topped with pork belly cubes and bacon bits).
On November 15, 2001, one of the restaurants located in Point Pleasant was redecorated as a resemblance to the events of the Mothman sightings as its 35th anniversary. In the 2010s, Cubby's Dining Car added new food items onto the menu: the Jumbo Rib-Hollow Sandwich, the Stillwood Tomahawk Steak, Tokyo Sushi Boat, Tsar Shuba, Shanghai Sea Monster Platter, Taj Mahal Biryani, and Congo Cookout. By 2022, Cubby's Dining Car celebrated the 100th anniversary with a new meal added to the menu called Cubby's Big Cub Challenge: a big platter with a smoked short bone tomahawk steak, a 7" 6-slice spinach pizza, 3 salmon sushi burritos, 5 mozzarella donuts, and a seaweed salad (topped with tobiko).
The logo marking the 100th anniversary.
As we learned so far, Cubby's Dining Car always sells delicious food to us that we order.
Original © 2025 Kris Straub / Forensic Seance LLC
